It's not only Sudan 1 in your food

No-one can fail to be aware of the current food scare this week with hundreds
of foods being recalled due to contamination with Sudan 1.

Sudan 1 is normally used as a colouring in solvents, oils, waxes, petrol, and
shoe and floor polish, and experts have warned it could contribute to an
increased risk of cancer.

It has emerged that the Worcester sauce containing it is used in a huge range
of foods. My question is, why?

Precisely for what reason is Worcester sauce used in Cheese and Tomato Pizza,
Prawn Layered Salad or Ham & Pineapple Pizza? The lists currently have
over
400 contaminated products, a lot of which I fail to see why Worcester sauce
needs to be present in.

The same is true for wheat.

How many products do you see the words wheat, starch, triticale in? A lot. If
I'm buying a fruit yogurt why should there be wheat in it, well the simple
reason
is because it's a cheap filler. It bulks out the more expensive, generally
healthier items in the product, and this follows through to a lot of food and
drink items.

Soups, most tinned ones contain wheat, why can't they use cornflour for
thickening, or maize starch, or tapioca starch? They are more expensive
ingredients than
wheat. The manufacturers would prefer to use the cheap, over-subsidised,
over-produced, over-sprayed with chemicals to produce higher yields for poorer
quality, wheat.

But the most reprehensible of all are the manufacturers that use hidden
wheat. This is wheat in quantities so small that it doesn't have to be
declared on the
ingredients list. Usually for things like easing the product through the
manufacturing process or as anti-caking agents. For example, ready ground
pepper contains
wheat as an anti-caking agent.

Quite a few spices again contain wheat for the same reason. Have you had a
bad reaction to a food that you thought was safe from the ingredients list?
Well it
could have been as a result of hidden wheat in that product.

Let's face it, most food manufacturing sucks. It's all about producing food
as cheaply as possible to maximise shareholders profits. For a real eyeopener
why
not read

Not on
the Label: What Really Goes into
the Food on Your Plate

There is no such thing as cheap food, Sudan 1 to make chilli powder redder,
selenium deficient grain in the majority of breads, pesticide and chemical
laden fruit
and vegetables, poultry fed daily antibiotics, BSE, the list goes on and
on.

But there are food manufacturers who produce healthy, environment conscious,
good quality produce. These manufacturers should be applauded as they don't
always
let profit get in the way of quality and ethics.

Want good soup? then why not try the New Covent Garden
Soup Company. Their fresh soups are
widely available in chiller cabinets. Some of their products are wheat and
gluten free, and contain no genetically modified ingredients either, but
you'll need
to pick carefully.

Food manufacturers need to get their act together, but it won't happen until
consumers make a stand and demand 'quality' food not 'cheap' food, after all
look
what happened to the dinosaurs...